Betting on You

Opposites attract in this witty romance by Painter (Better Than the Movies). When Bailey meets Charlie, her seatmate on a flight from Alaska to Nebraska, she’s immediately put off by his cavalier attitude. Though they find common ground in being the children of divorced parents, they disagree about almost everything else, including Charlie’s insistence that “guys and girls can’t be friends.” After the flight, the teens go their separate ways, until three years later, when, now 17, they both land jobs at a resort. As the two develop a friendship—and maybe something more—Bailey recruits Charlie in her ploy to drive away her mother’s new boyfriend, who she feels has upset their mother-daughter dynamic. Bailey and Charlie also unearth their years-old argument over whether guys and girls can be friends when Charlie reveals his belief that Bailey’s bestie, a coworker, will cheat on her boyfriend while working at the resort. Bailey bets against him, but the wager soon comes back to bite her. Via alternating perspectives, the characters’ good-natured and combative banter, and an emergent fake-dating scheme, Painter breathes new life into a familiar premise to present an entertaining low-conflict romp. Bailey and Charlie cue as white. Ages 14–up. (Nov.)